Anime: Pita Ten 681i59

First thing that I noticed about this anime was the ridiculous difference in the ratings - 5.5 vs the 9 from reviewers. The reason is quite simple - this anime appeals to your heart - its about love love and love. So its all about watching from your heart, or you will be disappointed.

Story & Characters

Kotaro (the primary character) is a 6th grade kid who had lost his mother a while back.

* The story starts with a girl (teenager) called Misha moving in next door and starts loving him non-stop like a mother. She is actually an angel who has been sent to earth to test her skills. Problem with Misha is that she is all heart and less brains, so she doesn't quite know how to make Kotaro 'really' happy. She tries her very best though.

* Similarly Shia is an apprentice demons sent to earth to cause havoc and test her skills. Problem is her true character resembles more an angel than a demon, so her guide, a demon in the form of a black cat, has quite a difficult time, teaching her how to be bad. Circumstances result in Shia living with the angel Misha.

* Then there are Kotaro's classmates:

** Koboshi who loves Kotaro and she has no idea how to compete with Misha because she sees her more like a love rival.

** Takashi his true friend from kindergarden (who falls in love with the demon Shia).

** And finally the bother sister pair Hiroshi and Kaoru who are in love with Misha the angel and Takashi respectively. So there are 2 love triangles, but its not serious and we know clearly who is going to end up with whom, so there are no surprises or big heart aches.

The story episode by episode, ends up being a slice-of-life of the various adventures of these kids. Each adventure tells us more about the character of each person and by the end you start loving each of them in their own way, and I personally totally fell in love with Shia the loving demon.

Animation, Sound, Editing

The animation is good - its sort of that old school animation, it feels warm and simple. Even the resolution is the old tv style square. So I was quite surprised when I later found that its not that old (2002).

The op & eds reflect the mood in the anime, its fun. I rarely like the opeds, so I was surprised to see that I didn't feel like fast forwarding. The background sounds are always appropriate and no where did I feel that they were being forceful or showoffy. Focus is always on the relationship between the people. I really liked that.

Summarizing

By the end, I felt that its a precious anime. This is one of the few animes that I rewatched now after some 5 yrs (happiness is less the 2nd time though).

I think this is the kind of show that kids should grow up with (and not things like tom & jerry). They will grow up to be kind and wonderful adults.

Check out 1 episode and you will know if you feel it as a 5 or a 9.

(PS: Could you please give some on this review? Mainly - where you able to understand/feel what this anime is about and whether this is the kind of thing that you want to watch or not?)

What can i say... I've just finished watching it.
I'm deeply moved by the ending but lets start from the beginning.

Animation: I can't tell much. It was colorfull. Everything was just in the right amounts. The big heads, water drops and such. But if you're looking for a piece of art in animation it's not this one. It's for kids ya know ...

Sound: Someone've said he didn't like *Tee hee hee hee* and '-su'. I love it ^_^ With the voice actors in this anime you won't get bored. Everyone is speaking his own voice... and that's it! No odd sounds.

Story: Hmmm ... It's not the best i have seen, but one of the best! I'm surprised that you actually can do something like that with anime for kids. You have an angel troublemaker and a goody-good devil... i'll say no more. There are some epizodes that you might say are empty. But you are WRONG! It has it's beggining, the middle part and the ending. I'm planning to watch all episodes again because of the story and the characters...

Characters: Micha, Shia ...
F^%$ this review .. i'm going to watch it again :P

(Writers note: If you read this review, RATE this review. Authors thrive on , whether it be a simple happy face, or an in-depth critique.)

Kotorou is your typical grade school student, with a typical grade school life. That is, until Misha comes flying into his life, literally! Misha is an apprentice angel in training, who has moved in next door to Kotorou. Upon hearing of the loss of Kotorou’s mother, who died in a traffic accident when Kotorou was little, Misha decides to act as a replacement Mom. Ignoring any and all pleas from Kotorou, Misha quickly integrates herself into every aspect of Kotorou’s life, from cooking his food, to accompanying him to school. Crazy antics abound in this slice of life childhood comedy/fantasy.

I loved this series. Loved loved loved loved it. Loved everything about it, from the adorable character animation, to the outrageous slapstick. I just can’t get enough of Pita-Ten. Be wary, reader! If you’re a fan of kittens playing with yarn, dogs chasing their tale, or babies playing with their rattles, Pita-Ten will likely turn you into a puddle for its duration.

Since Pita-Ten is basically a pure comedy, the three important comedy series questions will now be posed and answered:

Did I laugh? Yes.

How often did I laugh? Quite often, more so in the second half than in the first.

To what degree did I laugh? Some loud laughs and quite a few chuckles in the early episodes, with the side splitting humor taking place mainly in the second half, starting around episode 16.

Now, for some of the technical aspects. The animation in Pita-Ten is very good. By very good, I mean cute. By cute, I mean very cute. By very cute, I mean adorable, spectacular, beautiful, “melt your heart and turn you into a glob of goo for the duration of the series” cute. Never has the term “Kawaii!” gone through my head as many times while watching an anime as it did during Pita-Ten. Characters in Pita-Ten have little round faces and big pie plate eyes, breaking the “cute” thermometer and spilling the “cute” mercury all over the floor. Cute cute cute cute cute! If you’re a fan of cute, few series will make you feel better than this one. Not to say that there were no problems with the animation. Still frames are used a little more than is necessary. Characters in Pita-Ten move smoothly, but not fluidly. I also felt that the backgrounds could have used some more detail, occasionally having a washed out look to it.

The music of Pita-Ten is just like the series itself: Cute and innocent. The opening song was worth sitting through more than once. On the surface, it plays like a fast paced rock song, but with a feathery light female soprano as the lead singer. The contrast between the fast beat and the childlike vocals is both curious and absorbing. The music and sound effects during the series were barely noticeable, which is a good thing in my book, doing their job without drawing attention.

Pita-Ten is a tricky beast. On the one hand, we have characters that include many clichés that remind me of other anime I have seen, such as Ranma ½ and Love Hina. However, Pita-Ten takes these clichés and adds realistic touches and characteristics that allow the characters to transcend their respective clichés, slowly transforming them into interesting and engrossing originals. For instance, we have Uematsu, who early on reminded me of Shampoo from Ranma ½. However, as the series progressed, where Shampoo remains the same for all 167 episodes of Ranma ½, Pita-Ten’s Uematsu continues to grow and change.

Pita-Ten does an excellent job of confounding our expectations. We’re given a next-door neighbor who is an angel, leading us to expect many scenes of magic and flying. However, Misha uses magic in only a handful of episodes, and is seen flying in less than half of Pita-Ten’s 26 episodes. Then we have Sasha, the apprentice demon who, along with her guardian demon (a black cat with devious eyes), comes to live with Misha. How will these two opposing forces clash? Will Sasha spend the series repeatedly trying and failing to make Misha the angel trip up and fail her angel exams? How their relationship is handled is one of the great joys of Pita-Ten, and an excellent example of how this series will repeatedly challenge your expectations.

Another example of this is the ending. With comedies of this sort, occasionally the creators will tack on a purely dramatic finale, since it’s easier to close a series on a dramatic note rather than a comedic one. Love Hina, Futakoi, Yumeria, and many others employ this technique, and the results are rarely pretty. No series has ever pulled off a purely dramatic ending as well as Pita-Ten does. After all that laughter, I found myself with tears rolling down my face. I cried both tears of sadness and tears of joy, and loved every minute of it. Pita-Ten’s ending asks some very serious questions, to which it gives some very serious answers. The ending is so strong, that it made me rethink some of the recent events in my own life, and how I dealt with them.

There are many types of comedy out there. Pita-Ten is what one might call a “feel good” comedy. The laughter is not as intense as other types, but when you’re not laughing, you’re at least feeling very happy. Only Juuni Kokuki (The Twelve Kingdoms) has managed to make me feel so good for so long. Adorable animation, a catchy opening tune, characters you learn to care about as you laugh with them, and a story that quietly builds to one of the most satisfying endings I have seen, anime or no. On my list of favorite “Feel Good” comedies, Pita-Ten is ranked number 1 by a fairly wide margin. If you’re a fan of comedies, angels, or just plain cuteness, Pita-Ten will not disappoint.

Pita Ten...a touching story about this sixth grader named Kotaro and a hyperactive angel called Misha.

Bottom Line: A very enjoyable anime with many side plots (all hilarious!) and teaches the meaning of the loss of an important person and the importance of friends.

Animation: Since this was a kids show developed from the same company who made Digi Charat, I wasn't expecting much. However, the animation was top notch, beating out many other newer animes. Never once was there repeated cells, and characters blink, mouths move, and running animations weren't reduced to shuffles (Da Capo...)

Sound: Brilliant. Music fits perfectly with the mood of the whole story. It's very cheerful and uplifting. Opening song is very catchy, but the ending was standard J-pop at best. Every character in this anime has a specific music theme to it, and all sounded very nice and balanced out.

Story: Some people say this anime fell apart because of the episodic nature of the storyline and the lack of a central focus. BUT...each episode's self contained story all had a meaning, whether for character development or for a moral lesson. Every episode, I felt was not for filler or waste. They all hold a special meaning to the general focus of the anime.

Character: One of the best set of characters ever made in the history of anime. 7 distinctive characters, each with its own deep storyline. None of them were very annoying, or overly cliched. (Except for Misha, who ended everything she said with a -su and ~teeheehee~). The characters were the strong point of this anime.

Value: I highly recommend this anime to anyone who appreciates anime. Very well done, with KAWAII (CUTE!!!) characters, a very deep and meaningful ending, (albeit a bit sad), and overall just lifts anyone's day with an episode. Very funny, yet serious at the same time.

Enjoyment: I really liked Pita Ten. Very surprising, as the art will put off most but the bravest and libral anime viewers.

A kids' show, and a very very well done kids show at that. Why don't they show such strong shows to kids here? (cough cough, Ed, Edd, and Eddy fans...)

If you can't stand cuteness, then you probably won't like this. (I loved this anime, it's probably one of the best I've seen in a long time. Now on to the review...

Animation: Very smooth, top notch. I like to judge animation by people running, and Pita-ten have very good running animation. Everything moves, from Ten-chan's mole to Misha's rabbit ears. Dai-chan's rants with Kaoru are wonderfully animated, everything is clean, no discrepancies. I'm sold.

Sound: From the sound director of Da Capo, the music is very very catchy and "cute" (if one can call musical notes "cute"). Kotaro's theme, Misha's theme, Shia's theme, and all the others are very memorable. The soundtrack is a good buy. The sound director really knows how to evoke emotion in the music, and I give him props for that. The opening song is ingenious, and it fits the cheery, cute mood very well. Ending song was nice too.

Story: The nuts and bolts of anime; if the story fails, what is there to watch? Pita-ten falls a bit short in story, since it is a kids show. Don't expect a lot of suspense or violence or foreshadowing, there's good old-fashioned comedy.

Character: This is where Pita-ten completely shines. The seven main characters are so well developed that I can rattle them off right here. They each have their own quirks and habits that are quite memorable and funny. This is one of the only anime that I can't find a character that I hate; everyone is so lovable that it's impossible to hate any of them. It's also one of the first anime I watched that contains a responsible, sensible male lead. That's ingenuity. Kotaro and his best buddy Ayanokouji along with Misha and Shia and Hiroshi and Kaoru Mitarai all are very ingenious characters. If I could, I would give a 11 in this category.

Value: I was glad I watched Pita-ten. I was skeptic at first, with the sugar-coated art style, but I realized that the sugar-coating wasn't overbearing. The episode in the onsen still cracks me up to this day, and the last few episodes made me cry (and I don't usually cry while watching anime).

Enjoyment: This is one of the top 10 anime I watched, right up there with PlanetES. If you haven't gotten this little gem, get over to #spectre-anime and start leeching! Pita-ten is a pure masterpiece! If only kids shows were this deep in America...

Pita Ten is a super duper cute anime! The story is cute, at times its a little childish, but you just insist on watching it partly because of the cutely drawn characters and as you watch on the episodes the story gets deeper and more interesting. But each episode is based on Kotaro(the main character) and his friend's lives, some of the routines are quite repetitive and exagerrated but that's what makes it fun sometimes =D. It's sort of like a little kid's story, each episode, there is a twist and its solved. i guess it also teaches little kids how they shouldn't fight with friends for little things, how great it is to be a good person and stuff like that. The ending is definitely not one of those that finish without you even knowing o_O" and i was quite satisfied with it, but of course you'll just have to watch it to see if meets your standards! Cutely drawn characters? I mean it, they're all pretty and their bodies are adorably short! hee the sounds are cute including the background music, its all very cheerful and puts you in a sweet mood.

Each character has their own unique personality and as you watch pita ten you understand them and might fall in love with their cuteness! a lot of the characters are very typical though hehe.

Overall i think the anime is pretty good =D. I liked it more towards the end because in my opinion i believe the story develops an extremely suitable ending. If you're emotional and cute looking anime characters appeals to you, then you should give it a try =DD.